The ‘Giresun’ which accompanies the Turkish seismic vessel ‘Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha radioed the Norwegian ship, which is working for Total-France, and told it not to enter blocs 5 and 6 which are disputed territories that Turkey claims belong to its continental shelf. The Norwegian vessel was in bloc 7 at the time.

An outraged Foreign Minister, Ioannis Kasoulides gave assurances that the Greek Cypriot government would be speaking to Total-France and taking steps by complaining to the UN about the incident.

He added that the UN Secretary-General and the US Secretary of State should give serious thought as to whether this action is considered appropriate prior to the peace talks.